Cancer Center announces new board members

The center is a leader in groundbreaking research, patient care and reducing cancer disparities.

The Advisory Board of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center has elected officers and added seven new members to its roster for 2013-14.The Advisory Board is a volunteer group of community leaders, most touched by cancer in some way, who raise funds to provide patient amenities and increase awareness of the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Since its inception in 1984, it has raised more than $13 million for the center.

The new board president is Danny Markstein, managing director of Markstein Consulting LLC. Other officers are Jeanie MacKenzie, community volunteer, president elect-I; and Joel Welker, publisher of the Birmingham Business Journal, president elect-II.

Additionally, 10 new members and officers for 2013-14 were selected for the Young Supporters Board of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Young Supporters Board was established in 2006 to introduce the next generation of Alabamians to the importance of cancer research and awareness. The board includes young professionals ages 22-35, all of whom have been touched by cancer in some way. The group hosts programs and fundraisers throughout the year, including the annual Cinco de Mayo-themed Fiesta Ball. Proceeds from these events support the board’s Young Investigator Grants, which fund the research of young scientists at the Cancer Center. The board also provides services and amenities for patients in the center’s inpatient and outpatient units.

The UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of the 41 cancer centers in the nation to meet the stringent criteria for the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive designation. The center is a leader in groundbreaking research, patient care and reducing cancer disparities.

Alabama now has more EPSCoR Track II grants than any other state following the award of basic science grants meant to stimulate competitive research in regions of the country traditionally less able to compete for such research funds.

UAB secured more than $328.5 million in federal research funding in 2015, ranking the institution No. 18 among public universities and No. 34 overall in the United States during a year in which UAB’s total research and development expenditures exceeded $516 million.

Christopher S. Brown, Ph.D., former vice president of Research for the University of North Carolina System and director and primary investigator of the NASA/North Carolina Space Grant, tapped to grow UAB’s $500 million annual research portfolio.

A mechanism through which circadian clocks in neurons encode external daily rhythms of excitability allows pacesetter neurons to communicate with the rest of the body via electrical impulses, with possible implications in understanding and treating mood disorders.